Monday, November 30, 2009

~*Family*~

November 28-29 (traveling days 27, 30)
I just returned from a weekend in northern England with my flatmate's family. She invited my friend, Christina and I up to her house a few weeks ago but she was unable to come with us. It was a funny situation at first, being at my friend's house without her, but it turned out just wonderful. We became daughters instantly. Her mom took care of us as if we were Amy. She fed us, gave us a warm bed, and constantly tried to give/buy us stuff. She was so good to us! We could not possibly have asked for more. The small little town that they live in is called Maryport and it is right on the coast. If you walk down the street you can look over the Irish Sea and see Scotland. It is amazing! They are less than an hour from Scotland and less than an hour from the Lake District. It was so nice seeing a different part of England. Northern England is much different from Southern England... not just the appearance of it, but also the way people speak. When we first arrived early in the morning, 6:45am to be exact, it was dark and cold. Our bus dropped us off in the smallest town of all of England, Carlisle. In this small, itty bitty town, nothing opened until after 8... and most places did not open until 9 or 9:30. After walking around for awhile, we decided to sit in the waiting room at the Railway station that we stumbled upon. And we just waited for something to open. Finally a little cafe opened at 8 and then the pub next to it opened at 9. We got some hot drinks and then a nice English meal. We decided to get the Traditional English Breakfast. I mean why not right? We are in England! Might as well :) The breakfast came with fried eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, ham, and a choice of either a flat mushroom or black pudding. I got the black pudding and she got the mushroom, so we could try both :) I like them both! Christina did not really like either... but she did try them both. The black pudding tasted like something had just been burnt really badly, it was a peculiar taste and I did not find out what it was until we met up with Jeanne ( Amy's mom). I am not going to say what it was for those who want to try it first, but let's just say I will not be eating it again...
We took the train to Maryport which took only about 30 minutes and then we walked to their house. All the houses are connected. They did not have backyards and they are really tall. I think there were probably 4 or 5 different floors but they are not very wide. It was a good sized house and there were little laced curtains and paintings around the walls. There was a small little fire in the common room and we all huddled around there to keep ourselves warm. After Christina and I settled into Amy's room, we got a nice little tour of Maryport. We walked down the streets and went to the little coastline. It was a beautiful view.
The sky shone bright blue with a few decorative clouds. The perfect day. We decided to "pop up" to Scotland for the day, to a place called Gretna Green. A town where young lovers used to go to get married when England changed the marriage age to 21. Although many things have changed, people still go there to get married in the notorious blacksmith's shop. We had a great time there, it was a short visit but it was lovely.
As the months begin to get colder, it is harder to see scenary in northern England because the sun does not come up until after 8am and then it starts going down before 4pm.
But we made great use of the little time we had.
After Gretna Green, we went back to Amy's home and had a real traditional Scottish dinner. Haggus, Neeps, and Tatties. :)
More fun stuff to explain hehe.
Haggus is kind of like meatloaf... Scottish style.
Needs is this vegetable that the English call Sweed.... maybe like a turnip?
And tatties are potatoes!
It was a very interesting meal, I loved it! Oh and theeeeen we had a Clohty Dumpling ( which means a dumpling in a cloth... it is a dessert). It was all delicious!
Jeanne gave it to me to bring back to share with my flatmates and friends, but I left it on the bus when I was getting off in London :/ Sad. I guess I will just have to learn how to make it :D

After we had a very filling meal, we made mincemeat pies!! Contrary to what many people think, they are not made with meat. They are made with a mosh posh of different dried fruits. And they are absolutely delicious! Those I did bring back.
Jeanne let Christina and I pretty much make the entire pies with her instructions. They are very easy to make and I am excited to hopefully be able to make them for others. They are really good with cream or custard or by themselves. Mmmmmm.
We enjoyed the fire for quite sometime before heading up to bed with our wheaties ( hot packs).
It was so nice to be in a home with a family that was so welcoming we felt as if we were at home. Made me realize how much I miss my own family and how blessed I am.

The next day, Sunday was the day we decided to go around the lakes in the Lake District. We had our beautiful day the day before, so it was time for some rain. And there was no holding out on this one. We got buckets of rain and wind and the whole lot. Luckily we were inside the car and Jeanne was nice enough to drive us around to see the lakes without us needing to get out of the car much at all. It was so much fun. One of my favorite things about the Lake District and Scotland was all the sheep. EVERYONE seems to have sheep. They are so cute! Black ones and grey ones and white ones and multi-colored ones. They just walked around eating their little grass. It was precious. We drove up windy mountain roads around and through the Fells ( which is what they call the mountains in that area). The lakes were beautiful and the mountains came right down to the water. It was lovely. Beacuse there has been so much rainfall lately there has been a lot of flooding and the rivers and lakes were very very high.
The first time we got out of the car was when we toured William Wordsworth's cottage and museum. We also got some gingerbread from a little shop that has been making it for years with their secret recipe. It is nothing I have ever had before. It is not really like bread at all, it is more like a biscuit. It is good though... very ginergy.
We drove around the lakes for hours and it was really quite nice. Even though we were in the car, we were still able to see everything and experience the vastness of the nature around. The area reminded me of Vermont and Maine, the narrow roads with all the trees and mountains.
Our last stop before heading home was at a little small church. Jeanne wanted us to get a chance to have our own little Sunday service since we were missing our regular church service. We went to the smallest church in all of England. And it was this little room a little ways off the main mountain road, surrounded by big green trees. It was a treck getting to the church because the wind was pressing against us so badly we could hardly walk. I was so glad I wore my wellies because then I could just stomp around without getting my feet wet. Hehe.
The small little church was so serene. No one was there and it was dark with a few benches, but you could still tell there was good news being spread there. The few moments we spent in there was really nice, even though it was cold and dark, I knew God was there.
After leaving the church, we walked over to the pub to get a nice warm meal. We started with some warm drinks and then we all got a traditional Sunday roast. It was so good!
We had a nice time at the small little pub. Two guys came in with their dogs and the dogs stared at us as we at our roast beef. They kept giving me those big sad brown eyes, oh it made my heart melt. When we were done, we had a few pieces of meat left on our plates and asked if we could give it to the dogs. The men agreed and the dogs licked those plates clean!
It was a really nice time, we talked with the men and played with the dogs. They were so cute. One was a black and white collie, the other was some sort of terrier that looked like a pit bull.
It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day.
In the short amount of time we were able to be there for, we saw everything we wanted to see and more. We experienced a different part of England and we were blessed with a little piece of home.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Je t'aime Paris <3

November 10-12
Today I arrived back in London, from Paris. It felt so good to be home again. I loved Paris, but I missed London so much during the three days I was away. I realized how accustomed I have gotten to the English ways when I went to Paris and no longer knew which way the cars were coming from. Crazy how just a few months can really change your view.

Oh but let me tell you about Paris... I fell in love the moment I stepped out of the metro and the Eiffel Tower appeared right in front of me. It took my breathe away, it was so beautiful!! It was more than I expected, the three of us stood staring at the tower for a couple minutes before we could get ourselves to move closer towards it. Then we took about ten minutes just taking pictures of it and enjoying it. I felt all giddy around that Eiffel Tower, I just knew I would love that city! We got their early in the morning, at about 8:30 and France is an hour ahead of London so it was more like 7:30 to us. Luckily the cold kept us awake...and the fact we were in Paris!! The only thing I did not enjoy about being around the Eiffel Tower was the mobs scattered around the base selling cheap, fake, Paris souvenirs. They would come up to us trying to get us to buy little cheap Eiffel Towers and other random things with Eiffel Towers on them that we did not need. At first we tried to be kind and just simply say "no merci" , but when they did not work and they were EVERYWHERE I would just give completely ignore them. They were so persistent, it was crazy! However even with those guys, we could not stay away from the beautiful Tower. We walked along the Seine River and stayed near the Tower, taking pictures from other different angles. When we first arrived in Paris, it was cloudy which actually made for beautiful pictures. Hehe.

When we began to get hungry we decided we had to leave the Tower area to find some less expensive food. We wandered into a fruit and vegetable market, which had a man making crepes. When in Paris, you have to have crepes. Mmmmm. They were so delicious! He simply put butter with cinamon sugar. Oh we would have had those all day everyday if we could. After the crepes, we made our way toward our hotel. Getting to our hotel was an adventure, but once we were there it was so nice. We ended up taking a long nap after being up all night traveling, we decided we needed some rest. Also since Paris seems to be more alive at night, we wanted to be able to enjoy that.

After our nap we headed out to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I am so thankful for the London tube because it made traveling on the Paris metro system a lot easier. We took the metro to a station nearby the Notre Dame Cathedral and then just walked the rest of the night. Looking back at what we did, we realized that we walked across half the city in about six hours... no wonder we were so sore the next day! At least we slept good though, hehe. Notre Dame was absolutely picturesque! The huge stone building with beautiful wooden doors and the gargoils glaring from the top. Everything about it was so lovely, it was different from the other cathedrals we had seen before. And we were blessed to be there when they were having a service, we did not sit and listen, but we walked around the inside and got to experience it just the same. It was all in French, but it was still beautiful. They did a lot of singing and they had communion and it was just amazing. I cannot imagine having church in their, it was huge! Also I saw something I had never seen before, there were clear glass rooms with about ten chairs in rows outside of them. Inside the rooms were a priest and another person. They were confession rooms, but it looked more like a bank meeting. It was very interesting. I saw the same sort of thing in another church we went to during this trip, but had never seen it all through our traveling in Eurpope. It must be a French thing. After we left the cathedral, we walked along the Seine River just simply enjoying the view. We saw so much wonderful architecture. I really like the stone, it just looks so... ah I am running out of adjectives to describe everything in this city. And this is only the first day we were there... well all of you who have been there before will know what I am talking about, and all you who have not will hopefully understand a little through the pictures...

We walked toward the Arc de Triomphe... which was probably one of the longest walks of my life... but it was completely worth it! We took many stops and detours during the long street toward the arc. This arc is where the soliders would walk through when they obtained victory and I felt like arriving at that arc was victory for us as well. he arc is in the middle of the street and the only way to get to it is by going underground. Once we got there, we found out we were able to climb up it to the very top... so after over a mile or two walk to the Arc and just under 300 steps, we stood on the top of the Arc de Triomphe and surveyed all of Paris. We saw the Eiffel Tower doing a light show, we saw streets lit up and parks without lights, we saw in the distance places we would go and explore. I was awestuck by the view I was blessed with. WOW! And even Christina who is deathly afraid of heights, enjoyed the view from a distance. I am so proud of her! That adventure was the perfect ending to an amazing day and we headed back to our hotel to get prepared for another filled day ahead.



Versaille was our plan for the second day in Paris. Novemeber 11 was the 90th anniversary of something connected with the Treaty of Versaille. It was fun getting the opportunity to be there on that day. We had to wake up before the sun to get our day started. It was a cold morning as most of the days were in Paris, however it did warm up in the afternoon. Before going to Paris; Christina, Chelsea, and I watched Marie Antoinnette, I had never seen it before. I am so glad we did because going to Versaille held so much more value for me after seeing the history ( Hollywood status) behind it. The palace itself was a bit overwhelming. So much gold and wealth went into each room. There was hardly a place you could look that did not have some sort of pattern covering it. It was a place that would be nice to look at, but not necessarily to live. Which seemed to be the same thought that Marie Antionette had because the Petite Trianon was a place of personal retreat for her. We toured the palace which at one point housed 20,000 people! Which gives you a feel for how large this place was, it was the largest palace in Europe! After leaving the palace we walked into their backyard which was miles and miles of gardens. Our timing of coming to Versaille was perfect because the leaves were all changing and had not completely all fallen off the trees yet. We were able to just wander through the green and fall colored bushes and trees then we decided to rent bikes to give ourselves a chance to see more. It was as if we were in a movie, everything was just so wonderful. After our bike ride, we went to visit the place that all three of us agreed was our favorite part of all of Versaille... the village built for Marie Antionnette. It was the most precious little place ever! There were animals everywhere and all the little houses were just perfect with their thatched roofs and wooden doors. Even with the small village feel, you could still tell this was built for royalty. Some of the houses had wooden spiral staircases and everything was without fault. I loved it! We pet some goat, feed some sheep, and just explored. Oh I loved Versaille!!! Eventually the time came when we had to leave Versaille, it was bittersweet. We enjoyed Versaille very much, but we were heading back to the Tower we loved... ah it was as if things could not get better and then they would! We were exhausted by the time we got to our train to head back into Paris, but we wanted to take advantage of the short amount of time we had. We bought some dinner, I had a baguette, brie, and a carrot of course because I did not want to pay the ridiculous price for a sandwhich, and then got in line to go up to the tippy top of the Eiffel Tower or Tour de Eiffel. After waiting for what seemed like eternity, we got into an elevator and rode to the top. We found out that the Eiffel Tower was 120 years old this year... HAPPY BIRTHDAY EIFFEY!!!! It is exaclty 100 years older than the three of us, we were excited. Hehe.

The view from the top was beautiful, I love the lights and everything. I think the fact that I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower was more exciting to me then actually what I saw because I love seeing the Eiffel Tower and when you are in it, you cannot see it. But it was fun. The wind was so strong up there and it was cold, but it was well worht it!

Another exhausting, wonderful day! We decided that our last day in Paris would not start as early because we felt that we needed our rest. We had just a few things we wanted to see and we just wanted to be able to take in Paris because we none of us know if we will ever be so blessed to return. We woke up and left the hotel around 9:20 or so and we headed to the Moulin Rouge. We just wanted to see it. It turned out there was a lovely little crepe place right next door which we just could not pass up. I had nutella with a little bit of crepe. It was delicious! Intense... but delicious! After simply seeing the Moulin Rouge, we headed to the Louvre. It was so amazing! We got into the Louvre for free because we were students in England, it was great! I mean what are the odds of that?! We would have paid to get in, but it is sooooo nice when you do not have to. We spent about 4 hours in the Louvre seeing as much as we could. The art was magnicient! So many famous art pieces and artists in there, it seemed surreal that we were actually in there. It made me love art so much more!! I just wanted to sit and take it all in, but sadly our time did not allow that. Hopefully I will get a chance to come back one day because seeing everything in the Louvre... really seeing it all, would take weeks! After the Louvre, we headed to see Sacre Coeur... It was the perfect ending to our Paris trip. The area that this church resided was called Montmarte and it was probably my favorite part of all of Paris. It was nothing like Paris, it was more French. It had cobblestone streets and brick homes. Everything seemed to be on a hill and no matter which way you went, it felt like you were always walking up. The church was beautiful! We climbed the many stairs to the top of the dome and saw yet another breath-taking view of Paris. The sun was getting ready for its big debut and the Eiffel Tower seemed like just a spec in the distance. The climb up the dome almost made me closterphobic, luckily I am not or else I would not have been able to do it. A narrow staircase of 300 stairs was well worth the view. It was beautiful, Paris. I loved being there, I loved the people and the culture and everything about it. Now I know why so many people love Paris and why it is the city of love. Not only is the language beautiful, but the city itself is stunning! One day I hope to return and see it all again, but if I do not I am just thankful for all the memories Paris gave to me. :)

Friday, October 30, 2009

October is ending...

As I looked up on my way to class this morning, orange and yellow leaves fell from the sky. It was as if it was snowing leaves. All around me, the wind shook the leaves off the trees and rustled them on the ground. I did not see the squirrels scampering around as usual. There were no birds greeting me as I past. Just leaves. Although I love seeing the animals, there was a sense of peace this morning without them. I finished my first assignment today, turned it in an hour ago. It feels so good to have that weight off my shoulder, but I realized the workload is just beginning. I have another essay due next week and then in a few more weeks I will have another. The term is at the halfway point and it is an interesting place to be. I wish I could just sit in a tree or against a tree and just write about everything I see and ponder life... however my time does not always allow this luxury. I assume would be able to, I guess it is my priorities rather that do not allow the stillness. Tomorrow is the last day of October and thus starts holiday season. Holidays are always full of mixed feelings... everyone is excited about the events that take place, but it is always hard seeing another year pass by. Another year of working and studying and living life. I love life really, it is always full of suprises. That Forest Gump quote, although it is so cliche, is actually quite true.



"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get."



Everyday I learn something new. Everyday I am faced with challenges with many different options on how to face them. Do I take the easy road or the right road? Are they ever the same?

I am learning a lot about myself here and even more then that I am learning a lot about God. He is changing me and it is scary, but I know it will be good. Through my church experiences and the bible course that I attend, God is teaching me about a new culture. He is teaching me that my way is not always the right way, but His way always is!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

London: Weekly Updates from Days Almost Forgotten

Dear readers,
I apologize for the long drawn out time between posts. I always intend to sit down and type, but the thought does not carry very far. I should be writing for many different reasons, but I always have an excuse why not to do it. Therefore I am now going to stop jumping around and start explaining my experiences thus far.



Monday ( 5 October)-
I do not have classes on Mondays which is very nice indeed. I usually have an entire day to relax and catch up on what needs to get done. Well at least this was my thought when I realized I have several free days... I have soon discovered that these days are filled up quite quickly. This day was a fun day, sadly I was feeling very very ill...but of course I still went out and enjoyed my wonderful Monday. Today was the day we went to Central Perk. That's right! They opened a little cafe and made it into a temporary Friends Central Perk for the 15th Anniversary of the show. They were giving away free coffee and they had real memorabile from the show. There was also a line wrapping all the way around the building that we had to wait in to get inside... Our friend had told us that the line on the weekend was 4 hours long! Luckily our line only took about 35 minutes. :) And it was well worth the wait. The cafe was just precious. They had the orange couch and the tall tables and the chairs by the windows. The windows all said "Central Perk" on them and they had the Friends show playing on several different TVs. They also had several different pieces from the show, it was just priceless! We took pictures everywhere and just had a great time. Monday was a nice day.



Tuesday ( 6 October)-
I decided this is one of my favorite days of the week. For many different reasons. I really enjoy my Tuesday lecture and seminar. It is my Life Writing class and so I get a chance to learn how to improve my writing. I am in the class with a bunch of writers so I get intimidated a lot of the time, but then I realize they are all just like me. The seminar is wonderful because it is going to really tear up my writing and help me to become a better writer. I am excited. We got editing groups today, we were able to chose our own. I did not know anyone in the class so a group of us got together. It is a very unique group I would have to say, but I like that. I love diversity and I think we will really add to one another. There are two of us girls and two boys. There is Amy, Bob, and Kadeem. They are very kind and not the typical English people. I am still getting to know them, so there is not a lot I can input at this moment. Another reason why I love Tuesdays so much is because the this man comes on Tuesday and sets up a fresh Vegetable/Fruit stand. It is soooooo good. I buy most all my fresh produce from him because it is inexpensive and delicious and I can get it weekly. Mmmmm... Also usually every Tuesday there is a group of us that go to HTB ( Holy Trinity Brompton) for our youth pastorate ( college group) and it is really good. They have worship, a message, small groups, and food. It is a great time of worship and fellowship. I really enjoy it! This particular night however, we had a Froebel dinner. That is the college I am apart of, Froebel College. Roehampton is broken up into four colleges, and I live in Froebel. The dinner was very nice. I got all dressed up in a black dress and Angela did my hair and we all had a great time. We had a three course meal with appetizers and drinks as well. I had a nice time hnaging out with my flatmates. We all walked over together and everyone looked so nice. Everyone got dressed to their best, it was a lot of fun. Chelsea and I sat at a table together and everyone else was spread out all over the room. There were over 100 people there from the different dorms in Froebel. It was nice meeting some new people and having a free meal in the process. I was not feeling well toward the end so we did not stay long after everything was done, but I had a great time.




Wednesday ( 7 October)

Today was another day where I have the time to sleep and in and enjoy the day. It rained today which was not a complete surprise. It had been raining on and off for about a week and I absolutely loved it! We planned a trip to ASDA today which is one of our big outtings. It is a supermarket that is the sister store to Walmart. It is huge and they have everything there. It takes hours to get everything you need and about an hour in travelling as well. This was a trip to ASDA that we had never done before. We missed the bus that we were to take to get to ASDA and instead of waiting for the next one, we decided to walk. Yup, we walked over a mile in the rain. Thank God for my lovely raincoat :D Although it was raining, it was not terribly cold and when in good company, the time always seems to fly. We walked and talked and just simply enjoyed each other's time. And we just so happen to stumble upon a trail leading to a lake that was just magical! There were a few small benches and it was so picturesque that I could not help taking pictures in the rain. It was so beautiful! God gave us a little present that we all seemed to need to brighten up our day. The rest of the day was simply that much better because of our little secret place. It was as if God showed us a little bit of Himself in a way that we so often taken for granite...


Thursday ( 8 October)
Globe Theatre!! That was today. We went, we saw, we conquered. I convinced Chelsea and Christina to come to the Globe Theatre with me even though we could not sit together because my teacher bought tickets for me... The Globe was everything I could ever imagine and more! As we were walking across the bridge, I saw the big round white dome and I felt as if I was in a movie. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion and I just could not believe that I was staring at Shakespeare's Theatre. Even more then that I could not believe that I was about to go into Shakespeare's Theatre and watch one of HIS plays! We walked up big black iron gates and I was just simply mesmorized... this was the place that so many of Shakespeare's plays were written for. He wrote them with this theatre in mind. Wow it was so surreal. And the place was simply amazing. When we finally found my professor and got the tickets, we went inside and everything was made of wood. The stage was simple, there were no backdrops ar fancy colors anywhere, but it was beautiful. So much of this theatre is appreciated based on the imagination. It is just wonderful. And the play was really good as well. "As You Like It" was the name of the play and it was a romantic comedy. The characters were hilarious! They interact with the audience so much. We were in the first set of seats above the groundlings so we were not in the action, but we could see very well. It was one of the best plays I have every seen...I do not know if it is just because it was at the Globe Theatre or because it was Shakespeare, but it was just breathtaking. After we left the Globe Theatre, we continued our evening in that part of London by going to the Tate Modern which was right next to the Globe. It was a large Modern Art Museum that seems to be quite famous. I realized I do not appreciate modern art as much as maybe I should, but at least we gave it a chance. After we left the museum, we headed off to see the Tower Bridge that was just down the street from the Globe. It is nice how closely everything is placed to each other. The Globe Theatre is right off of the Thames River and you can see the Tower Bridge from the edge of it. We walked along the inside edge of the Thames River and found many different shops, I felt as if I was walking through Diagon Alley with all the stones on the wall and old shops. It was a really nice evening, walking along the Thames River over the cobble stone, it felt like we were in a Sherlock Holmes novel. And then there is the Tower Bridge...Wow! It was as if someone placed two large castles on top of a bridge and then drove through it. It is beautiful! I felt like I was at Disneyland... I feel like that is a sad comparison, but that is the only real castle experience I have had...that is all I have to compare it to. It was beautiful. Then if this evening could not get any more beautiful, we ended it with our first taste of the traditional London meal...fish and chips.
This was a day well accomplished, it was an evening of the arts...theatre, museum, strolling along the bridge. An evening of good taste.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

From Canterbury to the Mansion House

2-3 October

Today was a long day starting at about 6am in the morning... it was a fun day, but exhausting. Yesterday the weather changed from moderately warm to quite chilly in one quick flip. I know that this is just the beginning of the weather changing from cold to freezing... which can only mean one thing... Time for my Pea Coat!!!!! Woohoo! I am excited to wear all my winter clothes, possibly all at once. Well before I begin to venture into today I must describe the surreal events of yesterday. It started as just an average day, the first day of my Shakespeare class ( which is amazing!) and slowly it just progressed. First off it turns out that I am going to the Globe Theatre next Thursday to see one of the last shows of the season. I can hardly contain my excitement... the Globe Theatre!!! After being introduced into my Shakespeare class, I hurried back to my room to get ready for my next event. Amazingly enough I was given the opportunity to help out with a fundraising event at the Lord Mayor's House... I was a bit stressed out about what I was supposed to wear due to the fact that the only real direction I was given on dresscode was "wear a white/light colored shirt" and then after further probbing was told to "be comfortable and wear smart dress". What is smart dress????! After a lot of stress a wonderful flatmate/Biolan of mine helped me relax my nerves and dressed me in the perfect little outfit, not too causal not too dressy. It is funny when I worry about the little things and then everything works out... I guess it sort of always happens this way. The Lord Mayor's House was beautiful. There were chandeliers in every room, a couple rooms had more then one. Each chandelier was hand-crafted and the only other ones like them resided in Buckingham Palace. This we discovered after talking to the Lady Mayoress herself. The Lord Mayor was in California...of course he would be in California when I was in London...Well anyway at least we got to meet the Lady Mayoress, she was nice. I felt as if I almost broke her hand when I shook it though, she is not elderly at all, but she shakes hands as if she were a porcelin doll... Very intersting. The entire night was lovely though. No one was dressed up at all, the room was full of good Samaritan type people. It was not what I expected at all, but I had a great time meeting people and having great conversation. Also they served freshly squeezed orange juice which was the most delicious orange juice I ever had. Mmmmmmmm.

After we left the Mansion House, we headed over to St. Paul's ( not the Cathedral, a different church) where HTB was holding their launch party for the student Alpha courses. The Alpha courses are these classes where people can come and basically just ask anything they want about Christianity and God. There have been many people telling their testimonies the last couple weeks and it sounds like they are really life-changing. The launch party was nice though, they were giving out free beer and burgers ( I just had a burger). They had live bands and people were everywhere just enjoying themselves. I was very tired so I had a hard time fully enjoying the time, but I met some nice people and tried to keep my head up.
Overall I had a great time...oh London and its many different angles...I see something new each day.
Canterbury was the day that I meant to write about, I apologize. The Mansion House was on Friday and Canterbury was on Saturday. I am all mixed up... Well Canterbury was a lovely experience. We took the train there and I slept on the train. We had to be on the train at about 8am and so it was an early morning. The couple that will taking us on all of our field trips met us at the train station in Canterbury and they were very hospitible to us. They admitted their experiences in Canterbury were few, but they did a wonderful job showing us around. We got a chance to see an old Abbey that was just about in ruins as well as a Hospital ( which was not for the sick, but actually for the poor). We were given a tour around an old cathedral and then we ended our time at an Evening Song. It was so nice. Young boys and older men singing beautifully together, I was very impressed.It was a long day, but well worth the time spent.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Just An Ordinary Day at The Park

Today was a lovely day. We woke up at a decent hour and simply spent the day enjoying the warm English air. We walked to the Richmond Park today. It is about a 12 minute walk from our University and it is well worth the distance. Richmond Park is one of the largest parks in all of London and it is beautiful. It is not the kind of park that I imagined with a playground and a big green field. It is actually much more than that. Just as we turned the corner and saw the vast tall yellow grass field, we were astounded. It was amazing! There was grass that led on forever into the distance to be stopped only by the lining of enormous green forest trees. Separating the portion of the park that we were at, was a shallow brook. The brook was not too deep, but the grassy walls that led to the brook were. There were small dirt trails leading every which way into the deep forest trees and going around the park. Covering the grassy field was a large herd of deer! Thirty or forty deer covered a large area. There were doe everywhere, big ones and little ones... Then just when we thought we had seen it all, out of the brook strutted a very large male deer. He had a full head of antlers and a confidence about him that was just enough to make us keep our distance. We walked toward the deer in hopes to go behind their herd to a beautiful forest of trees... however, the male deer did not like the idea of us getting so close to his ladies. He stopped in the middle of the trail, stopped his hoof, and made a loud bark/growl noise that scared us all out of our shoes! We knew he meant business and decided we could find a different spot to relax.

We crossed the road to the other side of the park where there were more trees and a few solo deers just frolicking around. I spread out my red fleece blanket and we all sat under the big oak tree. Chelsea sat and wrote letters to her loved ones back home. Christina tried to catch up on her journaling from our traveling. Charissa enjoyed sharing stories about different events in her life and pondered about the events coming up. Angela took pictures of all the beauty that was surrounding us. And I tried to read Captivating but could not focus on the words that were coming off the pages.

After some time of relxing, we all decided we wanted to climb a tree. There were so many fun trees all around us, they were just begging to be climbed. We surveyed all the trees, judging many of them to be too tall or too thin or too far. Then I saw one that too me looked just perfect. So I decided to try to climb it. So in my black Ug-type boots, I grabbed a branch and flipped myself up onto the tree. It was so fun! Once up there, I just kept going... I climbed higher and higher until I could not find a place to go. Chelsea also joined me in the tree. She made the choice to take off her boots in order to get more of a grip. The other girls tried to climb up, but did not succeed and so they gave up trying. Chelsea and I relaxed in the tree for a few moments before climbing back down to find a differente tree for the other girls. We walked through the forest where it was a little darker and simply enjoyed the free air and God's complex and simple beauty.
Our time at the park was short, but it was not wasted. It opened up our eyes to a different part of London. Beyond all the alcohol and the worldly pleasures that consumes so much of this hurting city, beauty still remains.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

London: Change is Good

London is full of suprises...everyday is a new experience for me. I am learning so much about myself and about the world around me. Today was a nice day. I really enjoyed myself. Aside from what most of my flatmates think, you really can have a lot of fun without any alcohol. I woke up late this morning, just allowing my body to wake up when it had enough sleep. I got a full night's sleep. Eight hours, woohoo! We were supposed to have a fire drill this morning at 8am, but I guess it did not happen. Last night around 2:30 my flatmate said we were supposed to have it around 3am, but she wasn't all there so maybe she did not really know...
Anyway we did not have it which was nice. The morning was very relaxed, the maids were cleaning the flat so I did not take a shower for awhile and then did not eat breakfast because they were cleaning the kitchen and we heard there was a free meal. Oh my goodness, we have had at least one free meal almost everyday since we got here! It is insane. I feel like I never get a chance to eat all the food that I bought. There were a couple times that I actually felt like I was getting tired of free food. I know it sounds crazy, but its true. Lol. Well the free meal did not exist so we ended up making lunch. Chelsea, Joel, Christina, and I made lunch up in Joel's kitchen which was fun. Christina basically lives in my room. She is always here and stays the night quite often. It is fun having an extra person around. I love her. We shared potatoes and veggies for lunch which was nice.
After lunch we rode the bus into town to Putney. There are a bunch of little shops there and it is pretty much the closest place that has everything. I was not going to go, but of course I gave in and went. It was fun. Chelsea and Angela really wanted to go to a yarn store so we went there and it was so precious! It made me really want to knit. Everything was so soft and now I really want a little knitted beanie... Angela and Chelsea are so talented. When we got back from Putney, we went back to Roehampton which the CU ( Christian Union) were putting on a big BBQ. It was so much fun! First of all the burgers were amazing...then they also had tea which I love and I just the little CU group that we have met. They are all so precious! Mike is one of the main guys that we met last time we had a BBQ and he is so goofy. Tonight I found out about the big rivalry between Froebel College and Digby Stuart College. Ok so Roehampton University is broken up into four different colleges: Froebel, Digby Stuart, Southlands, and Whitelands. The two dorms that the Biola students are in, Southlands and Froebel. I am in Froebel College, but I will be taking my classes in Digby Stuart. I was having fun with Mike because he is from Digby College...Froebel College does not like Digby. I fought with him because Froebel is going to win the football game ( soccer)! It is called a Frigby game, which is Digby and Froebel put together. The sad part is that I will not be here for the big game because it is at the end of the year. But my school will still win! We are the zebras and Digby is the lions. I told him that zebras always beat lions in a fight... he disagreed. Digby has beat Froebel 5 out of the 6 times they have played them, but this year will be different. I know it!!
Anyway Mike is a fun guy. Then there is Jack. He is another one kind of in charge of the CU. He is a lot of fun to hang around. They are all so welcoming. He actually remembered my name this time which was lovely. He introduced me to his cousin. Her name is Michelle. She just came to study in London this year at a Music school. She already has a degree in teaching so I had a great time talking to her. I really wanna play cranium and taboo and all sorts of games with my new friends. They are all so great! Jack is hilarious. He is always messing with me. Him and Michelle kept making me say literature because I guess I do not say it right or at least not the way they say it. It was so funny. They are such a good group of people to hang out with. There is also Elizabeth who is always super excited about everything. She is cute. She did not talk to us for very long this time because she was running around everywhere, but she remembered all our names which is very good. Jack is not so good with names... He forgot Angela's name, so I taught him how to remember names. Hopefully he uses my tips.
So after we hung out with them for a few hours, we headed back on the bus and train to a college group get together. We found the most amazing church this Sunday. God is so good to us!! The first church we tried and it was absolutely amazing. They have a strong college group that meets every Tuesday night, this was our first time going. I left feeling so refreshed. The message and worship was amazing and the fellowship is so encouraging. Everyone was so sweet and welcoming. We just feel like we really belong. One of the pastor's of the church is going to make a Thanksgiving dinner for all the Americans...isn't that so sweet?! Oh they are all so amazing. It is a very young crowd, and they have such a passion for what they do. There are these classes called the Alpha classes which were started by this church and their advertisements can now be seen all over the world. The worship leader is Tim Hughes, he is a pretty famous artist. It is amazing! Tonight was so great though, I met several different people and everyone was so sweet. They always feed us everytime we go which is great. They feed us with the word and physical food as well. :)
I met the sweetest girl, her name is Liz and when I met her I thought she was like 21 or 22, but I found out she is 30. She was our small group leader and I had a nice long talk with her about culture and relationships and all that good stuff. She is engaged...everyone is getting engaged. Yeah Lisa!! ( A little shout out hehe)
Then I also met Naomi and Hetti (Harriet), they were very nice and friendly. Also there were a bunch of Americans there from different areas. This girl Liz that I met ( a different one from the first one) was from LA, but when to school in Boston and now is in London. Small world, huh? Then we met a guy just as we were leaving who was from Florida, his name was Austin. Another nice fellow. It was so great talking to all this different people. I love meeting the English people with their accents and different terminology. Like when we were on the bus going to church, Christina and I got talking to this young fellow who thought is was really strange that we went to a Christian Uni ( thats what they call University) because there are no such thing in England. Ther culture differences are so interesting here. I literally learn something new everyday.
In the service this evening different people had different images that they felt like God was giving them that they wanted to share with the rest of the group and I could just feel His presence there through the words that were spoken. I know it is going to be a hard semester. There will be a lot of road blocks and speed bumps, but I am excited for everything that is going to shape my life. I know God knows what He is doing and He brought me here for a reason. I am working on preparing myself for everything He has for me.
Thanks again for reading! There will be a lot of make-up blogs to come...

Love always, Danni

Monday, September 21, 2009

London: A Slow Start

This is Day 4 I think.

London is very different then I expected...I guess I did not know what to expect, but it is taking me awhile to adjust. I have not had a lot of down time and so it has been hard to process everything that is going on. This campus is beautiful and I am excited to sit under a tree and read Shakespeare. It has been hard not having a schedule, I feel like my head is spinning from everywhere I have been and all I have done. Then on top of that we moved in at the same time as all the other international students so I feel like I keep getting hit with culture shock and as much as I love it, it is exhausting too.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Prague-Berlin-London: Three Countries in One Day






September 15

Left Prague at 6:30am. Arrived in Berlin around 11:30am. Tour at 1:30pm. Train at 5 or 6pm. That was our itinerary for the day. We had a long tiring day, but it was worth it for all that was packed in. We were given the opportunity to go to another free tour which we were super excited about because we had such an amazing tour in Prague. We had the same expectations for this one. We were wrong. Everything started out fine. We saw the Brandenburg Gate and some beautiful statues the Hotel where Michael Jackson dangled the baby out the window and a museum of the Kennedys. You know an average day. Ok so the Michael Jackson thing... I did not know that the hotel was in Germany! In Berlin! Right across from the Brandenburg Gate! Isn't that so crazy?!
Anyway back to the tour so the tour guide was interesting. He was like Bulgarian/American/something else... He seemed to waste a lot of time doing unneccessary things like make fun of this poor Swedish guy that was in our group. And he was hard for me to follow because he did not have a very upbeat voice and I get very distracted easily. I kept wandering off physically and mentally. A lot of what he was saying was very interesting, but the way he presented the information was hard for me to follow. The amazing thing about Berlin is that so much happened there... when we were standing by the Brandenburg Gate, the tour guide pointed out holes in the walls where Soviet bullets had pierced through. So much of the damage from so many years ago still can be seen.
He also led us to the place where Hitler's bunker was! It is under the ground and there is no memorial for it. We walked over to this patch of grass and he explained about the plain, ugly concrete buildings. They were the apartments built during communist times. Under the patch of grass was the bunker where Hitler stayed and no one has any desire of remembering him. While we were standing in that area, a man walked by walking his dog and brought his dog over to pee on the grass. The tour guide said it happens all the time, people purposefully bring their pets to pee or poop, or drunk people will come to throw up on the place Hitler used to reside.
My favorite part of the entire tour was the part when we went to the Holocaust memorial. It was almost an entire block of a memorial in the middle of town. The place was chosen so that no one would be able to avoid remembering what happened. The memorial is based off the grave we saw in Prague, the artist based it off of the way that the Jewish gravestones were. However the memorial is supposed to be about how each individual experiences it. It is built with lines of cement blocks of different heights making rows up and down. The ground that it is built on looks like it is rolling, very little of it is straight. It goes up and down from every which way. There is enough space to walk between all the different rows, and it is something I have never felt before.

When I was walking through, I walked slow and tried to imagine what it was like during the Holocaust time. When I was in the middle of the memorial, the cement blocks were the tallest. So as you are going in they get taller and taller and as you are going out they begin to get shorter. Imagining the time period and what the artist was trying to portray. I felt like a little Jewish child walking in at first amongst a lot of other children my same size ( the cement blocks that were the same height) and looking around no one really knew what was going on. As I kept walking and the flow seemed to spin, it was erie. The Jews in the Holocaust had no clue what was going on in the beginning because they had to reason to be there. In the middle, there was really no way out. I mean the cement blocks were so tall and I felt so small and insignificant. I walked blindly through the lines as the Jews must have done when they were led into ghettos, trains, bunkers, cafeterias, everywhere...

Going into the memorial was depressing and it broke my heart. However it did not end there. We were not left in the middle of the cement blocks and neither were the Jews! The days of liberation came and the Jews that survived the concentration camp held on to some sort of hope. That is what I felt walking out of the memorial, the blocks got smaller and there were still no answers, but the blocks began to even out and I realized even though the Jews and so many others endured so much pain at least they had each other. And even more than that they had God. It is amazing how much you learn through experience. I recommend everyone to go to Berlin and experience that memorial. My interpretation is simply what I got out of it and definently not the solution to the puzzle. See for yourself, it will change you.

One of the last stops for our journey was the Berlin Wall. It is not what I expected. It is a long thin cement slab with graffiti all over it. There is not much left therefore nto much to see. We had to head out after this part of the tour in order to head out for our train. The tour guide stood awkwardly by us for a long period of time when we told him we had to leave. It was horribly unprofessional. See because they run on tips only and we did not tip him because it was a FREE TOUR. There was no obligation to tip him and it was so dumb because he acted all rude and he was not that great of a tour guide so I do not know what he expected. He kept saying "So what something wrong with the tour" and then when we told him that there was not, but we had to leave to catch a train....he just stood them. Ug it was so annoying. He was like begging for a tip!

Well we left all annoyed by the tour guide man and that could have given us a sore feeling about Berlin, but luckily it was redeemed. After we left and headed toward the train station, we had quite a bit of time left over. We had come back to the area where the tour had started because there was a Starbucks there and the girls wanted to use the bathroom. The area around the Gate was all blocked off and there were police everywhere, it seemed as if there was so sort of parade. I stood around taking pictures of everything just in case we found out later that something exciting had happend. Then in the middle of everyone, there were a bunch of men in suits. I assume men in suits are always important so I took pictures of them... Finally after all my guessing, I asked a guy who was watching the everything as well and he told me that it was the Mayor of Berlin! He had come out to greet everyone after having a lunch meeting with the President of Macedonia! The President of Macedonia we saw get into his car and then the Mayor of Berlin began to come toward the crowd and shake hands with people. So a bunch of us got up clsoe and stuck our hands out....and wouldn't you know, he didn't just shake our hands, but took a picture with us too?! We were completely star-struck leaving Berlin. All we could talk about was meeting the Mayor of Berlin. It was such a wonderful was to end our time in Berlin.

We headed from Berlin to Hamburg to catch a flight to London. Everything seemed to go quite smoothly. We met a sweet English couple in the airport waiting for our plane to London. The gave us many tips on how to live inexpensively in London as well as what to see. They were a lot of fun to talk to and made the time fly by (no pun intended).

We arrived in London at about 11:45pm and after much debate ended up taking a cab to our guest house. It was very reasonable and it was our only option at that hour. The guest house was lovely and it was just nice to have a place to lay our heads. It was a long day, but we were back in London at last!

Prague: The Mostly Forgotten City

September 14


Prague was so much more then I ever could have expected or imagined. I had always heard about Prague, but did not know why the city was so talked about. What made Prague such a 'must-see.' After being given an amazing tour of Prague by a lovely tour guide named Steph, I realized the importance and awe that this city is always given. We met our free tour group at a decent hour in the morning, it was slightly raining, and just simply the perfect setting for a walking tour. ( To me, rain is always perfect). We started our tour in a square that seemed surrounded by everything worthwhile. There was so much history that the Czech Republic contributed to and was apart of. Sadly, everything that the Czech's created or did was taken away from them. From political uprisings to landings on the moon, the Czech people have been given very little credit for their efforts. There is so much that I learned, I do not even know where to start...
Everywhere we walked, there was history and reason attached the buildings and the places we stepped. We were led into a Jewish quarter where many Jewish memories were kept and honored. The Jewish community in Prague was where all the Jews were forced to live and only live during the Holocaust time period. There was a small little plot of land where the entire Jewish community was forced to bury their dead. The plot was so small that the Jews were stacked some 10 or 12 bodies high in each grave, the graves were marked by tombstones slanting every which way from each plot.
We saw the astronomical clock which was amazing and confusing. The clock was one of the greatest prize possessions of the Czech people and every day at a certain time there is a little performance done by the clock. Our tour guide said it was one of the most ridiculously pointless performances she had ever seen, but the old Czech people will go every day on the hour to watch it. Oh traditions, how we love them.
We ended our tour right before the Charles Bridge. Our tour guide told us a story about the king and a priest that held the secrets of his wife from him. And how the king pushed him over the bridge and he took the priest took the secrets to his grave with him. It was a lovely little story... I do not remember the details, but ask me sometime and I will try better to remember. The tour was amazing and after it ended we headed over the bridge to see more. The bridge itself was amazing, there were vendors and performers lining the outer edges. There were artists of all kinds. The bridge had scultures on the high walls including one that people believed rubbing it would bring them luck and many babies...
On the other end of the bridge, we found the castle...much much later. The castle was not what I expected. It was more like a small little village then a castle. There was not one large building with towers, but there were walls around with guards in front. I guess that counts :/
Leaving the castle, we headed to see the John Lennon Wall. Melody had told us a little bit about it, but I did not know what to expect. We reached the wall and it was amazing! Everything was covered with different colors. There was so many different fonts and sizes and colors and shapes and drawings and languages. It was a wall covered by so much emotion. People have been writing on the wall for just about 50 years! It started out as a place for people to just express themselves during a time of turmoil, but I guess the turmoil from here on out will never really end. It was just a beautiful display of everyone coming together. I absolutely loved it!
We spent a lot of time at the wall, taking pictures, leaving our own mark, and just simply taking it all in. After we left we headed out to just simply explore the city. We split up for a little bit to do some mild shopping and just wander. We met up after a few hours at TGIFridays for dinner. We also met up with our new Australian friend, Erin and her friend Jay. They ate dinner with us and we had a great time. The waiter was super sweet and very helpful. I ate tomato basil soup which was 95 crowns. It sounds like a ton of money huh?? :) Well in reality its only about 6 bucks. Hehe.
It was sad because this was our last night with Melody and Joel :`-( They were leaving us to head out to Koln to meet their friend. We had a lot of fun on our last night all together though. We hung out on the bed just being goofy and taking pictures. We tried to hide in more cupboards and scare Joel, but he found out and was not suprised. It was a good night. Melody and Joel had to leave at 3 in the morning to get on their train to go to Germany so we let them stay with us. Melody slept in my bed and Joel got his own bed while Christina shared with Chelsea.

Angela and I stayed up late trying to get everything finalized with our final hostel. It took forever because we did not want to spend any more money and London is so expensive so nothing was cheap. We spend so many hours on the iPhone looking for places and then we finally booked a guest house while we were way past the point of being loopy.Tiring. Blah! I love Angela!
It was a long night, but tomorrow it is off to Germany and then home for the semester AKA London!!!

Prague: Just Settling In








September 13

This day had a rocky start, but ended up just lovely. We got the wrong directions to our hostel and hopped on a bus that we did not need to take. Since we had already paid for the ticket for the bus, we decided we would use the bus ride as our own tour of Prague. It was not the most beautiful tour... there was little to see and a lot of sad, graffiti walls. We did, however, meet an Australian girl named Erin on the bus. She was going to the same hostel as us and had gotten really lost as well, so she decided to just ride the bus with us. It was nice. We had a great time talking with her, she was super sweet. When we finally arrived at our hostel, we placed our bags in the luggage room and went straight out to eat. It was dinner time and we were starving. So for the first time on our entire trip, we had... Mexican Food! Yup that's right, we went to a Mexican restaurant in the Czech Republic. Hehe. It was actually really good. I ordered a kid's meal which was simply chicken and potato circles that were shaped like smiley faces. It was great, I loved it! We all had a great time just relaxing. The weather was quite dreary, everything was dark and it looked like it was going to rain ( which it did, much later).

It was nice settling into our hostel room after a long day of travel. We were all together in one room which was fun. It had been a long time since we had all be together in one room. The room was really pretty it looked like the entire room was from IKEA. The walls were bright colored along with the blankets on the beds and even the cabinets. The hostel was really nice, and it was only $8.50 a night. It is crazy because everything is really cheap in Prague. The hostel also had an indoor swimming pool and a sauna! The pool was too creepy for me, so I did not go in. It filled up an entire room! You walked up these stairs and then there was the pool reaching as far as you can see... it was insane! Then there was a little sauna, which looked so nice. Some of the other girls went, but Christina and I did not feel like getting our bathing suits all stinky again so we did not partake in these activities... also the pool was really cold.

While everyone was swimming, we went over to the bar to try and use the internet. All the computers were full for hours. We were given coupons for a free drink at the bar so we got that as well. My first time ever ordering at a bar! It was so much fun! I got pineapple juice. Mmmm it was yummy!

The day that started out not so great, ended up pretty nice. Tomorrow is the tour of Prague! Woowoo!

Vienna: Culture and History Revealed





September 12

We did not spend a lot of time in Vienna and by this time in our trip, everything was starting to blend together and we were getting very tired. We got here early in the morning and walked around for a long time. There were only a few big attractions that we knew we wanted to see. Actually I had nothing in mind that I had to see in Vienna, I love experiencing culture so walking around and people watching always suits me just fine. Melody knew of some big attractions that Vienna was known for and Charissa wanted to see some of the musical side. We saw the big opera house which was beautiful, but unfortunately way too expensive for our budgets. Mozart is the well known composer of Vienna apparently, so there were men everywhere that were dressed like Mozart... it was interesting. They all wanted us to go to the theater, however it was way over our budget of money as well as time. We ventured over to a well known open market which turned out to be more like a massive garage sale. There were tables and people everywhere. People on the floor selling all kinds of trickets, people with tables, and people with tents. Everyone selling "...another man's treasure." It was so overwhelming, we walked through rather quickly in order to avoid because pushed every which way. We did however manage to buy this amazing little round cinnamon treat...I do not know how to explain it and I have no clue what it was called, but it tasted amazing! That was pretty much the best part of the open market. Mmmmmm
After we left the open market, we went to venture other areas of Vienna. Our first goal was St. Stephen's Cathedral. Sadly it was a little bit of a let down. Do not get me wrong, it was amazing. However after seeing so many beautiful churches and statues and monuments, it was just another one to add to the pictures. I was more interested in the people that were surrounding the church. Let's start with the protest that was going on just as we turned the corner to see the church, a line of people dressed in green protesting the mistreatment of the Iranians... I think. Then just to the right of the protesters was a War Vet that was sitting on a rolling cart next to a small white tent decorated with a painted on marijuana leaf singing who knows what. Then there was the huge crowd surrounded around the Austrian break dancers doing a show. It was great! Also, if that all was not enough, there was a large group of girls dressed like different centuries of wenches...I do not know why... The entire experience of just people watching was priceless.
After leaving the Cathedral we headed over to the palace that Marie Antoinette lived in! It was so beautiful, the sun began and set while we were there so it was the perfect timing. The actual palace was closed however there was a couple in a suit and wedding dressed who looked like they were having a wedding reception or something, it was so lovely! Everything about the palace was magical! There were staircases leading up on either side and a beautiful garden in the back. We got locked in the garden because they closed the entire palace and brought out the doberman pinchers... it was crazy! We had to jump over a fence to get out, I felt like such a rebel. Hehe. It was great!
Then when we got back to our room, I had a lot of energy ( what's new with that right?). And so I was jumping around trying to make my bed and then I decided to climb into the cupboard and hide. So first I hid in there and scared Christina... hehe. It was so much fun! So then I told all the other girls to try, lol. So I got all the girls except Melody to climb into all the cupboards with me. I really wanted to scare Joel, but he was on the phone and never came back in. I was sad. I waited for a long time then I finally just went to sleep... oh well maybe next time.
Vienna started out with very little excitement and ended with fun little stories to tell :)

Salzburg: The Sound of Music


September 11



We lefted Munich, Germany today at 7am. It was an early start, but we did get a chance to sleep on the train...somewhat. We found our hostel pretty easily behind a huge construction site just under the hill with the abbey. We were all exhausted, but we got into our hostel and got settled. It was huge, looked like the outside of a children's museum. It was orange with writing on the sides, it did not look trashy at all. It was all very nice. We spent some time exploring Salzburg before our tour at 1:30. We walked to a grocery store to get some cheap lunch ( baguette, cheese, meat, fruit... the usual) and then we stumbled upon a very interesting square. We sat down on a couple benches to eat our lunch and in front of us a huge chess board was painted on the ground. A couple old men and a middle-aged man unlocked some large plastic chess pieces ( they were probably about half my size) and started playing. It was so much fun watching this event. Then just a few yards behind us this man began to play this beautiful melody on the chelo I think. It was wonderful! The weather was perfect and the scenery was just lovely. Just to the right of me a couple yards was a line of open shops under small leather coverings. Very touristy, but still held their class. Everything seemed just perfect. We watched until the end of the chess game and then another sqaure when we walked through a stone archway. It was as if we walked into another century... gathered in the center of the square was a caravan of horse-drawn carriages with drivers. It was so beautiful! On the other side of the square was a large stone church capturing many different aspects of beauty! Everything seemed so unreal.


Before ending our stroll and heading back to the hostel for our next adventure, Chelsea split a huge chocolate covered pretzel with Christina and I. Our morning could not be complete without more chocolate. Mmmmm.


The Sound of Music in Austria



Today was a beautiful day in Salzburg, Austria! It was cloudy and raining and everything was green! We went on a Sound of Music Tour today, because the movie the Sound of Music was created about a family who lived in Salzburg, Austria. There are several places in Salzburg that are in the movie, but a lot of it is filmed in Hollywood. The tour did not start until about 1:30pm so we were able to have a relaxed morning, just simply enjoying Salzburg and the free breakfast we were given at the hostel. A small van picked us up from the hostel around 1:30pm and took us to our tour bus not too far away. We joined a bus full of tourists to see the famous scenary that Maria and the VanTraps saw everyday! I love the rain, but it was a little bit of a bummer when we were in the bus because the pictures through the windows did not come out.
:-( However we did not spend the entire time in the bus, we stopped at the lake behind the VanTraps house ( in the movie) and the Gazebo where they sing "I am 16 going on 17..." and the trees where the children are hanging out of. There were many other places that we were able to see, but did not stop at. We saw the house that the real Vantrap family lived in and we were given all the history of Salzburg. The movie brought the small little town a lot of wealth. In the evening after the tour we watched the movie and saw everything all over again... it was so cool! Oh we also went to the church where Maria got married, it was gorgeous! Everything is so big, it makes you feel so small. We walked down the isles under the dome with the beautiful glass windows and the huge spaced out walls with all the small wooden pews and huge depictions of Jesus and his mother Mary. Everything was so beautiful, so much detail goes into each and every aspect of the church. It was amazing!
After viewing the church, we went to a small little bakery and ate warm apple strudel then spun around in the grass like Maria. The hostel that we stayed in was just below the Abbey that Maria resided when she was a nun. We never got a chance to go in it because we did not want to disturb the nuns, but we saw it. Looks just like the movie! The stone walls with the hills all around. It was lovely! Everything was lovely.

Dachau, Germany: The Camp That Started it All

September 10, 2009
This blog is a hard to write because it was a hard place to be. This portion of the tip was the most important part for me. I have always had a strong desire to experience a concentration camp because even though my Jewish heritage may be small and they most likely did not live in Germany during the period of the Holocaust, it still affected me along with everyone else during this time and after. So many people were killed during the Holocaust that did not deserve to be. People were killed for being crippled, homosexual, Jewish, Jehovah Witness, Polish, Slovenian, a Gypsy, and so much more. Anyone who did not match up to the standards of the Aryan Race were considered lower than trash. The man who started Dachau was named Heinrich Himmler and it was the first regularly used concentration camp. Auschwitz was based off of this camp. Dachau was used mainly as a forced labor camp and the majority of the people in Dachau were men. When I walked through the gates of the concentration camp, I felt a tears well up in my eyes. I knew this would be a hard, but I did not know how hard until I got there. The tour guide talked about the stones that we were walking on and the square we stood in. Thousands of people took their last steps in that camp. The majority of the people in that camp did not die from being gassed but instead died from the hard labor and little food that they had.
A lot of the concentration camp had been destroyed, but they were able to preserve quite a bit of the camp because although the Nazis would have loved to pretend that the Holocaust had never happened, the other Germans knew the importance of people seeing what had happened and not letting it happen again. There were three memorials at the back of the camp which showed the pain and victory of the people in the camp. It is sad that so many people in the camp never made it to the liberation day. We walked around and saw pictures of the malnourished men being forced to make porcelian. The saddest part about these camps is that they were very nice looking. The beds had to be made perfectly, every corner smoothed. Everything had to be cleaned and shined so that when Red Cross personnel checked the camps, they thought everything was going perfectly normally. If a prisoner's uniform did not meet the standards, if one button was not in the correct place... they would be tortured and killed.
From an ignorant stand point, if someone did not know what had happened in this place, they would see the brick buildings with the perfectly placed shingles and think it was a great place to be. If you payed no attention to the barb wire eletric fences surrounding the camp and the guard towers watching the prisoners every move, you would think it would be a fun place to go to camp. It is sad that the Nazis were able to hide what was going on for so long, that there were so many lives destroyed. The brick stoves that where at the back of the camp where enclosed in a nicely placed building beyond the view of the naked eye. They beautiful German scenary surrounded it with a path that could be walked with green trees and flowers... the prisoners were led through beauty to death. What irony this camp held. With beauty and pain all wrapped up in one awful package! The stoves were quite shallow, but by time the people came to this point they were so frail and thin that 4 or 5 bodies could be stacked on top of one another and thrown into the stove. The bodies were burned and the names of those people almost ceased to exist as well.
This camp really opened my eyes up to how much one man can do. One person (Hitler) who had so much intelligence, almost destroyed an entire group of people (the Jews). As I was walking through and seeing all that had happened in that place, I was numb of any emotion. After I allowed the tears to fall, I walk like a zombie for hours. I felt as if I knew a tiny bit of how those people felt, although it is not at all possible for me to do it completely.

Everyone needs to go to and experience a concentration camp at least once in their lives. It will truly change you. It is uncomfortable and it is not enjoyable, but it is necessary for us to have the images engraved in our minds so that will never forget and never allow it to happen again.

London Finally: A Place To Call Home... For A Few Months

Hello all!
Oh I am missing you all so much. I have not had internet access for quite awhile and so I have been unable to blog about my experience. I have to do a lot of catching up on the ending of my EuroTrip. However for now, I am just going to write about London because there is so much I want to say.

First of all I cannot believe I am really here. We arrived in Standsted the night before last from Berlin and stayed in a hostel. Last night was the first night that I stayed in my dorm room... the room that I will be in for the next three months. The name of my dorm is Garden Court, it is apart of Frobel College. So if you go to www.roehampton.co.uk then you can see what my dorm looks like. :-) The dorm on the outside is all stone and is a lot smaller than the other dorms. It is kind of hidden past this small door that looks like you just walked through the Secret Garden. From my window I can see a wall covered with different vines and plants. When I first got to my room I was looking out my window and trying to get it through my head that I was really in London and this music was playing from one of the rooms above that just sounded like what you would think of would play in a movie. It was so funny. My room is very white and plain, with an old green squishy wooden chair and a long wooden desk/drawers all connected lining the wall opposite the door. I got my linens ( a duvet with duvet cover, a pillow with pillow case, and a mattress cover sheet thing) which is nice because I do not have to buy them and it adds color to the room. I also have a blue chair that is used to prop open the door and to sit on of course. There is a square of cork on my door so I guess I can stick some pins in there and people can leave me notes...hopefully. I met my flat rep, she is like my RA. She did not introduce herself to me, I had to go to her... but that is ok. Her name is Becky and her friend is named Kelly. They both live on my floor. Beth, another girl from Biola London, also lives on my floor. My other floor mates have not arrived yet. My dorm is super quiet, it reminds me of Hart ( Biola dorm) because it is super far from everything and it is quiet. I guess quiet is good sometimes, but I really hope I get a chance to meet more people. I think maybe a lot of the people are upper classmen or UK students because they do not arrive until later. School does not start until September 28... nice huh? :)

Ok so back to my room, I am on the first floor and when you walk in the door of the dorm you turn left and just go straight down the hall and straight into my room. I am in dorm 4. So if any of you guys decide to come and visit and suprise me, you can find me. :D
When you walk in the room, my bed ( which I am laying on now) is on the right against the wall and window. My bed has a blue duvet cover that looks like it has coffee cups and whip cream on it. The other girls do not really like the linens we were given because they look like they are for boys, but I like them. I mean they are free, I cannot complain! Oh and I also have my red fleece Biola blanket at the end of my bed. On the left when you walk in the room is a wall with three long doors and then three little doors on top. The top three are two cupboards ( one cupboard has two doors that open out. The first long door that is wider than the two other doors, opens to my sink area. There is a sink with some towel racks and such. There is also a baby sized trash can under the sink... I think I will buy another one. The other two doors open up like french doors ( except they are super plain and look nothing like french doors) and they reveal my very empty closet. I realized I brought so much less than I thought I did. My shoes selection is sad. :(
Oh well good excuse to go shopping :D
The wall facing the door is an off white color and it has a good sized board that blends into the wall where papers can be tacked in. There are two wooden shelves on the same wall just over the desk at the end of the wall. The desk/ drawer combination lines the majority of the wall, it is a very plain wooden desk. There are three deep and not so wide drawers first then a cupboard with two shelves and then four wider but not as deep drawers then the desk area with the chair. The room is not incredibly large, but is a good size for a single person I think. If I was to measure it based on my height, it would be able 2 Danni's wide by 3 1/2 Danni's long. It will look a lot better once I have everything organized and add some color. We are going to the UK Walmart today, it is called ASDA. I have been making a list and it will be hard spending a lot, but I will need to buy food and such. Luckily they also gave us a frying pan, a pot, a glass, a bowl, two plates, silverware, a wooden spoon, a mug, and a thin dish towel. So that saves a lot.
The nice thing about being in a small dorm is that the floors are short and there are less people you have to wait for the bathroom for. The bathroom and shower are both right outside my door. And the kitchen is just down the hall. I do not know yet where the laundry room is, but I do not need to do laundry yet so I will wait for one of the others to figure that out.
Chelsea lives two floors above me, Joel lives on floor above me, and Charissa lives one floor above Chelsea. It is nice that we are all so close. Christina and Angela live on the other side of campus along with Melody... I miss them :(
I hung out in Christina's room last night, we ordered pizza from pizza hut ( the delivery guy came on a motorcycle)... not the same as America for sure. Taste wise yes, size wise no. The medium 8 slice pizza was about the size of our small pizza. We made it feed all three of us ( Angela, Christina, and me).
The campus here is so beautiful! I am so excited to sit in a tree by the lake and read Shakespeare! The path to get to our dorm is a dirt path surrounded by beautiful trees, that are slowly changing colors, lining a large pond with ducks and a willow tree. There are also sporadic blackberry bushes, which I have taken full advantage of, all over campus. This place is amazing! I am excited for all the stressful, getting ready for school in a different country aspect to be over so I can enjoy just being in London.
I got an email saying that my classes for Creative Writing and Shakespeare got confirmed, so I am excited for that! I cannot wait for school to start! Well I can because I am not ready for it yet, but I am excited.
Oh and when Chelsea and I first got here and we were wandering around we made a new friend that was from Texas. His name is Wes. We ran into him like ten times while we were getting everything situated. It was nice having a first friend. I also met a girl who I thought she said she was from Australia, but now I think she may have been from Austria because she did not have an Australian accent... her name was Yuliana ( I think). She was nice.

Ok I am going to try to upload some pictures and blog about my other experiences. Sorry I do not have more detail. Thanks for reading!

Love always, Danni